Leonid Pasternak

Leonid Pasternak was a Russian painter who was one of the first to label himself an Impressionist. He was born in Odessa to an Orthodox Jewish family and studied medicine and law at Moscow University before pursuing his artistic career. He taught at the Moscow School of Art and was a member of the Polenov circle, a group of artists that included Valentin Serov, Isaac Levitan, Mikhail Nesterov, and Konstantin Korovin. He was also a friend and illustrator of Leo Tolstoy, whom he depicted in many portraits and scenes from his novels. He married Rosalia Kaufman, a pianist, and had four children, the eldest being the poet and novelist Boris Pasternak, the author of Doctor Zhivago. In 1921, he left Russia with his wife and two daughters and settled in Germany, where he befriended Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth. He later moved to England in 1938, after the rise of Hitler, and spent his last years working in Oxford, where he died in 1945. He is known for his paintings and drawings of contemporary writers, musicians, composers, and other distinguished figures, as well as his landscapes and family scenes. He was a prolific and versatile artist who experimented with different styles and techniques. He is regarded as a leading Russian Impressionist and a significant figure in the history of Russian art.